I also looked at the metrics. Surprisingly good values given that I didn’t monitor them during the row and it was windy and choppy. Perhaps I should hope for chop and a cross tailwind on the races of coming weekend.

The wind was strong and the water was very choppy, but I didn’t want to shy away from rowing high stroke rates in the chop. You never know what the conditions will be on race day.

The official training plan (from our club’s head coach) asked for 2x(4x250m/250m)/5min. I decided that I would do three sets of four. The prescribed stroke rate was “Race SPM+2”, and I decided that that would be 34spm. I wanted to row each 250m as the respective 250m segment in a 1000m race, so the first one from a standing start and the final one with a desparate push to the finish line. Race simulation on a chilly and rainy Thursday morning. I had the entire choppy surface of the lake for myself.

Pushed off the dock and rowed to the end of “Rokle”, where the water was a bit flatter. After the row, I discovered that I had not switched on the SpeedCoach for this 2.5 km of warming up. This always upsets me a bit. 2500m of unrecorded rowing!

On the SpeedCoach, I programmed the workout as 8x250m with no rest. When I got ready to start, I noticed that I had already moved 3 meters and the clock was ticking. Must have been the wind. So I set off and rowed. The final 100m of the first 250m is in a slight turn to starboard, so I was recording lower power on my (starboard) Empower oarlock.

This first set was done with tailwind. I forgot to focus on anything, except the final sprint in the fourth interval.

The second set of intervals was in headwind. After the first set, I noticed a ship steaming towards Rokle, so I decided to do the first two intervals in front of our rowing club. Worse chop and stronger wind, but no need to be on the alert for potential collisions. One of my club mates made a very wise remark yesterday: “The more tired you get, the more important it is to keep the technique perfect.” It is true, when the drive force starts to diminish, you get tired, your posture gets a little less strong, and the decline in boat speed keeps increasing.

The final set of intervals was in tailwind. I started them at the same point as the first interval. After the second set of intervals I was of course tired, but I judged that I should be able to finish another set.

I finished the workout with a 2 km paddle in the most choppy part of the lake.

All in all it was a good workout. I was happy that I managed to get the stroke rate up (at the cost of a slight reduction in finish angle, I am afraid). It was hard work to stay technically together in the windy and choppy conditions, and it was also hard work get the power output in the desired range.

I am trying to get in another workout at the end of the day. I will spend the coming weekend in Racice (where I did the training camp in the spring) to attend (not compete, of course) the European Rowing Championships, so I need to get my training load in before Saturday.

The training plan that the coach sent didn’t take into account the fact that I am racing in 5 days, so I had to improvise a bit. But Thursday’s workout looked interesting.

3x(7x40sec/20sec)/5min at race pace

I woke up into a nice sunny day, but the trees were moving and the wind forecast wasn’t great, predicting 7 to 8 m/s, which on our lake means it may be a bit rough. The forecast was confirmed when I arrived at the club. So I decided to just cross the lake to Rokle and then take the river to Veveri Castle and beyond.

I got a little bit of water in the boat while crossing the lake. I am afraid it didn’t really look like rowing in this part, but the goal was just to cross. It was a little choppy, really:

On the river, I did the workout. I had to improvise a bit. Some of the turns are a bit sharp, so I took the rest instructions as “inspiration” and adjusted the rest and work intervals to suit the turns.

This is a great training. Perhaps I should have increased the stroke rate a little, because it wasn’t as hard as I expected, but this was difficult on the river, with the turns, the wind, and the other traffic.

The need to watch the traffic and steer made it a bit hard to watch “Wash”, but I think there were a few intervals where I had the right emphasis.

The average “wash” value at 28spm and higher is 13.6 degrees, but if you look at the dots (each one being a stroke), you can see that this is skewed a lot by steering strokes and I would argue that I am closer to 12 degrees.

Here are “wash” and “effective length” vs stroke rate. I don’t think it makes sense to look at the averages. Crossing the lake twice, I had to revert to short strokes. There was no way I could do something that looked like rowing in those conditions. Also, after I finished the third interval, I paddled quite lightly, just enjoying the scenery.

And here is the video. I took the FIT file from the SpeedCoach and just did a quick DashWare overlay using the power, cadence and pace values. The averaging causes the metrics to change very quickly at times. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to overlay Empower Oarlock metrics like slip, wash, catch and finish angle over the video? I guess you would have to do a slightly better job at synchronizing than I did, though:

Today Romana would video the girls and me. I was a bit nervous about the quality of the result, because Romana would have to steer the launch and take video at the same time.

Also, our lake’s sense of humor played up again. On video day, there was a bit of chop. I did steady state plus a few minutes of 27-28spm rowing next to the girls in the double, and a few 32spm sets for the video.

Here’s the result. Even though it’s shaky, I think side videos from a launch are much better to study technique and come up with recommendations than the GoPro videos from behind. I am really looking forward to the comments!

Thursday’s training was a late evening session. Friday’s training had to be an early morning session. I don’t like to do it that way, especially two high rate workouts after another, but there was no other way. Friday afternoon to Monday I will be without a car, which despite the perfect public transport in Brno makes everything more complicated, our rowing club being 2km of hiking from the nearest tram stop and my work being on the other side of town (23km from the rowing club).

So I rolled out of bed at 5:30 and drove to the rowing club.

Very cold conditions compared to a few days ago. 10 degrees C and mist on the water. Cross wind and chop. Interesting to see mist and chop and wind at the same time, but it truly happened. Should’ve taken a picture of it. Also interesting about our lake is how light wind from certain directions can create seriously choppy conditions. We only have flat water with zero wind. Anyway, about 15 minutes into the session, the mist disappeared and the wind strengthened.

The plan: 2x750m / 12 min rest (1) 34spm, (2) 37spm.

The real plan: As the training schedule is written with double/quad in mind, I have to lower the stroke rates of the high rates sessions when I do them in the single. So I decided to row at 32spm and 34spm, and row them “as the first 750m of a 1km race”. I also decided to focus on achieving that rate by focusing on technique rather than trying to achieve a certain pace. Rate and technique over pace. With the chop and crosswind, splits wouldn’t be fast anyway.

3km warming up with some high rate bursts and a practice start. Had to reset CrewNerd after 2km because it stopped measuring distance. The reset fixed that, luckily.

First 750m with race start, then settle down to 32spm and count strokes to 80. The first half was slightly calmer than the second half, during which I had a couple of instances where my blade hit a wave and I was slightly off balance. The good old lactate rush was also present at the party. End result was 2:47 (1:51.6 pace) at 31.9spm (38max) according to CrewNerd.

To be honest I didn’t feel much like doing another one.

Detail of first 750m

Twelve minutes of rest and I had to decide. Either I continued down the lake to the finish, turn around and would do the second 750m in even more choppy conditions. The alternative was to turn immediately and row to the narrow north end of the lake and do the higher rate interval in calmer water. Calm, flat water certainly helps to achieve 34psm and is easier when you’re tired (or, said differently, gives more flattering splits), so that was a very attractive option. On the other hand, doing the high rate interval in very choppy water would probably be better in terms of race preparation for next week. Trebon lake has a similar chop-sensivity as ours. So I chose the first option. During the rest I had time to think about a way to survive the second 750m. I played with the thought of reducing it to a 500m and avoid the dreaded lactate rush. Or to row 500m and then just paddle it out.

But all that didn’t feel all right, so I had to really find a way to survive. This is what I came up with:

Race start + ten strokes, then

10 strokes focus on clean tap down in the chop, then

10 strokes focus the high rate recovery (speed but calm on the slide), then

10 strokes focus on a light catch, not too strong on the legs in the first part of the catch, then

I did exactly that and it did wonders. I ignored the stroke rate and pace on CrewNerd and focused on these things. The conditions were much more choppy than in the first interval and I thought I was going slower, but when I finished, I found myself looking at 2:48 (1:52.1 pace), 32.8spm (37 max). Not bad pace in cross-wind and being tired.